


Looking at the Sun

by domini_moonbeam



Category: Redacted ASMR
Genre: Budding Romance, Cute, M/M, bumping into each other, complicated feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:48:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28150410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/domini_moonbeam/pseuds/domini_moonbeam
Summary: Lasko bumps into the last person he'd expect to see outside work at a human club.
Relationships: Lasko/Damien
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	Looking at the Sun

**Author's Note:**

> Based on characters from Redacted ASMR. I don't know if ANYONE is into this but I love them so here we go. If you have any particular asks feel free to hit me up on [tumblr](https://dominimoonbeam.tumblr.com/). No promises, of course, but I'll do what I can!
> 
> And really, if you haven't checked out Redacted, you should. This guy is building a whole connected supernatural world through audio stories. It's amazing.

Lasko lost his buzz the moment he recognized a face in the crowded club. He froze, suddenly a stone in the pulsing sea of the dance floor.

Damien stared back at him from the bar, both blinking at one another. It wasn’t a club for magic born. It was just a regular club for humans, gay humans looking to dance themselves into exhaustion or find someone to go home with for the night. This was a place Lasko went sometimes to pretend to be someone else—someone a little less awkward a little more easy-going. This was not a place he had expected to see anyone he knew—let alone Damien.

He felt the color drain from his face and reality come crashing back down on him. His mind raced. Was this inappropriate? Was he doing something he shouldn’t be doing? No. No, this was outside of the university. This was his own time. He wasn’t doing anything questionable. Was he? Damn it! Heat rushed to his cheeks and he turned and wove through the crowd, suddenly desperate to get outside, to get air, to get away from this place and to somewhere he could think clearly.

Why had he ever thought this place was comforting?

Nerves pricked down the back of his neck, following his spine down his back under his tshirt. Had someone called his name? Had _Damien_ called his name? No. No, this was not happening. He walked faster, taking a shoulder to the chest and turning with it to get past the cluster of people near the door.

He made it outside, hit by the chill of the night and didn’t let himself slow down to breath it in. He turned and started walking in the direction of the subway. He could think when he stopped on the platform or, hopefully, on the train home. Fuck. Why couldn’t he do anything normal?

“Lasko!”

Fuck! He almost started running but that impulse was too embarrassing. He couldn’t actually run away from Damien. He stopped walking, dropping his head back for a second to stare up at the sky. The city lights were too bright to let them see the stars from here. He winced at the clip of footfalls running up behind him. With a sigh he dropped his head forward and turned around to face one of the most stressful, intense people he had ever met in absolutely the last place he expected to see him. He tried to make himself look directly at him, but it was too much. Damien was always too much. He was vibrant in all ways, fully alive and fearless. It was like looking at the sun.

Damien looked pissed but that was how he usually looked. And what right did he have to be pissed? Lasko reminded himself again that he hadn’t done anything wrong. He jutted his chin up even if he wasn’t looking directly at Damien.

“Hey,” Damien said and seemed to lose some steam now that he’d caught up to him. “I…Where are you going?”

Lasko blinked, confused. “Home?”

Damien dragged a breath and pushed his hair back from his face with one hand, clawing at his scalp. “I’ve never seen you here before…I didn’t mean to run you off or anything.”

Lasko blinked again, more confused. That sounded so… _considerate_. “I’m not running off,” he said and they both knew he was lying.

Damien rolled his eyes and shoved his hands into his pockets, looking away and around like they were waiting for someone else. “I don’t usually see other empowered people in this part of town,” he admitted, making conversation.

Lasko shrugged. “I grew up a few blocks from here.”

Damien looked at him again, surprised. “I didn’t know that.”

Lasko blushed, he felt it and hated it. “Yeah. I mean, it’s not like my family and I are close anymore or anything and it’s not like I’m going to run into any of them here…” he rambled, gesturing to the club entrance behind Damien. “Someone said I needed to try getting out of my head and meet new people in the world so I thought…” He looked at the club again, face burning. It had been a stupid idea. He’d only gone here a handful of times but thought it had been a rush, even if he never went home with anyone and barely even talked to anyone. It felt social in a way different than he’d ever tried before. Now it felt weird though—tainted by reality. Maybe it had always been make-believe, like DnD, but in another form. Maybe that was bad.

Damien nodded though, still watching him, those dark eyes seeming to read everything on his face. “I get it.”

Lasko looked up, for a moment meeting his gaze. “You do?”

Damien pressed his lips like he might take offense to being second guessed. “Are you really afraid of me?” he suddenly asked.

“What? No!” _Yes. Definitely, yes._

“Is it…” Damien looked away and groaned like having this conversation made his skin crawl.

Lasko took a step back, no idea how to interpret any of this.

“Is it because I’m a fire elemental?”

Lasko was so surprised by the question that he just stared.

He stared too long because Damien managed to tense up even more, shifting away like he might turn and leave. “Fuck,” he muttered.

“No!” Lasko jumped, actually take a step forward. “No, of course it’s not because of that. Why—No.” He had started to ask why he would even think that but that was stupid, he knew why. Fire elementals had a certain reputation. It was inaccurate and unfair, but it wasn’t something he didn’t know about.

Damien nodded, not looking at him though, and Lasko knew he didn’t believe him. He took another step closer, shaking his head, suddenly wishing the sun would look at him again, as much as that gaze made him uneasy. This was worse. “It’s not that. I’m not scared of you. I just…You’re…” This was so inappropriate. “You’re intense.”

Damien side-eyed him, gaze narrowed like he was still deciding how to take it.

Lasko groaned. “You’re intense. You come at me with all this energy and demands and it’s a lot, you know? And you’re so good at it. You know everything and it all comes off your tongue so smoothly. I’m not afraid of you. I’m afraid of being run over by you.”

Damien turned toward him again and Lasko realized they were standing too close but now he was afraid to take a step back. He blushed and looked down but that had his gaze on Damien’s chest. He blushed anew, for entirely different reasons. He mentally slapped himself.

“I don’t mean to run you over,” he said, surprising Lasko out of his thoughts.

He looked up at the sun, stared right into it, and was sure there would be spots in his vision in the shape of Damien forever.

“I like you,” Damien added, voice rougher when his words were softer, like he needed a certain balance at all times. He looked away, down the street, away from the pulse of the club behind him. “There’s a place around the corner that does a pretty good grilled cheese.”

Lasko blinked, a little dizzy from the whiplash or maybe from the vodka shots he’d done not thirty minutes ago.

Damien groaned like Lasko had said something annoyed. “Do you want to go with me? Or do you have somewhere to be?” He sounded annoyed but he was inviting Lasko to go get sandwiches, right?

Lasko felt his own eyes bulge. “Yes! Um. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds nice.” Nice? More like a total mindfuck. And he wanted to go with him, to hang out with Damien, of all people, outside of work.

Damien exhaled and Lasko was shocked to recognize relief in the other man. He nodded. “Okay,” Damien said and then started walking.

Lasko fell into step beside him, realizing the air around Damien was a little warmer than the rest of the world, the chill of the night not quite touching his skin if he stood close enough.


End file.
